May 5, 2002

MY ten-year old daughter is able to learn and sing out aloud all the latest pop Indian hits the moment she hears them. Same is the case with my teenage son, who knows almost all the songs that come on MTV. But try telling him to learn a stanza or two from Keats, or learn a speech from Romeo and Juliet and you’ll hear no end to “not fair”, “it is boring” and the complaints go on and on. Sometimes, I tell him to learn a speech from the play they are currently doing by keeping in mind the tune of the latest song that he knows by heart.

The chapter “Encouraging the reading habit” in Literacy and popular culture: using children’s literature in the classroom by Marsh and Millard answers my questions satisfactorily. “As with music, so with fiction; it is not always the greatest works that exercise the most powerful pull on the imagination of young readers.”

Yet no one can deny the importance of literature. Amina Azfar, former editor at the Oxford University Press, explains, “Literature affords a larger view of humanity than is available to a single individual. You could call literature a treasure house of human experience. It enhances perception, sensitivity to others, and feeds the imagination.”

Huma Calafato, an O-Levels English literature teacher at Foundation Public School endorses Amina Azfar’s views and says: “It is the mother of psychology and helps people become well-rounded individuals. It teaches us to be more sensitive and empathetic.”

But then do we really consider the child’s personal choice in relation to the reading material which is being forced on him? We want children to read all the classics there are as classics are good as opposed to popular fiction. In fact, we tell them what they should read and never quite consider what they would like reading.

Huma Calafato acknowledges that “teachers do have certain fixations and mindsets. We are still living in the past, whereas literature is progressive. As teachers, we also need to keep on changing our perspective. There is plenty of interesting contemporary literature floating in the market and we need to motivate our students to get their hands on it.”

On her part she encourages students to bring to class the books they are reading and asks them to share with each other the different aspects of their book, the characters they liked, the style, the imagery, the plot, the language. “It makes for a healthy discussion in class. The characters become more life-like and the children are immersed in the world of fantasy.” She notices the difference in the level of discussion when children talk about books of their own choice.

Is it alright for children to read all kinds of books — popular, comics, thrillers, romance etc? Huma feels that there is no harm in children reading these as it improves their vocabulary. “As long as it is not subversive literature, children should be allowed to read books they can see themselves in, books they can relate to,” she adds.

But will it lead to good reading later? Both Amina Azfar and Huma Calafato give a big nod. “Because the quick rewards they offer can encourage a child to read. In the absence of an imaginative teacher or parent who can make a literary work attractive to the child, popular fiction can at least inculcate the reading habit,” explains Amina Azfar.

“There is extremely enriching and enlightening types of pop fiction and it contributes greatly towards developing the reading habit, rather than detracting from it. Abridged classics also play a big role in developing the habit of reading,” says Huma Calafato.

Is popular fiction really so trivial and does it debase language? Is it really the bad guy that it it’s made out to be? Huma Calafato, feels one cannot call all popular fiction trivial or that popular fiction promotes trivialization. However, she adds, “There should be a healthy balance. I do not feel that Roald Dahl, R.L Stine, J.K Rowling or Tolkein promote trivialization. Of course, the age-old favourites, Secret Seven, Famous Five and The Bobbsey Twins are always there to regale young minds.”

Amina Azfar explains: “The goal of popular fiction is to please as many as possible. Relating to individuals is definitely not its aim. It is therefore usually trite and certainly without depth. Not all popular fiction is written in bad language; what it lacks is richness of language, which comes from richness of thought.”

She likens it to canned food. “The trouble with non-literary, popular works is that the rewards of reading (entertainment) are too easily available. Such books don’t expect the reader to exert his imagination or make any other mental effort. You could compare such reading material to mass produced, canned food. It is unfair to expect a child who has always been fed on such fare to grow up into a gourmet.”

However, she feels that a child must not be alienated from his peers. I think there is no harm in being exposed to thrillers, romance, etc. as long as literary works form a part of the child’s staple diet. Given a sustained familiarity with good writing I think that over time, quality is bound to win.

Huma adds, “I think people who feel that popular fiction is debase or exploitative are being too harsh. One cannot attract children towards literature with just classics. It would not be too appealing. Once the habit of reading is developed then children can explore the more intricate and complex subject matter.”

And while most children may have read junior classics like Black Beauty, Robinson Crusoe, Great Expectations, The Little Princess, Heidi or contemporary novels like Tom’s midnight garden (Philippa Pearce), it’s actually what they read at home and books that are not prescribed by the school that they find more intriguing. In fact, it is the vocabulary of these popular books that they often use in their school essays or when speaking to each other that never fail to amaze us.

And most of the time it has been idioms of books — comic books, Sweet Valley, Enid Blyton, etc — that offers them a teeming source of new words. In fact, Enid Blyton may have received much literary criticism, she may be outdated, but she has, for many, proved to be a source of shared pleasure between generations.

Popular fiction captures young minds. It further reinforces the readers’ interest by offering official websites where users can get info and track new publications, have contests with pop stars also participating. “I feel such marketing strategies can have a detrimental effect on young minds. When books are sensationalized to such a great extent, it detracts from the simple and healthy habit of reading and adds a new dimension to it,” says Huma Calafato. Amina Azfar says resignedly: “It is too prosperous a business to be curbed.”

Today developing a love for reading is not all that simple. Books have to compete with the computer, the Net, TV, etc. However, another onslaught teachers today have to face much to their chagrin is commercial exploitation of children in the form of story-book characters that subtly work on children’s desire when they appear on school bags, erasers, pencils, pencil cases, and thermos flasks. While teachers can ban them from classrooms, they cannot stifle the excited discourse of a new comic character from the classroom. In a way, one hopes, it may just promote a desire to read which may later develop good reading habits.

And while quality in children’s reading (as reflected in the choice of books prescribed by the school) is important, it is the selection of texts that has to be done carefully. “Quality is very important. Everything that is meant for children to read should be written intelligently and sensitively. Childhood is the time when you can lay the foundation for discernment, objectivity, and an ability to grasp other points of view,” says Amina Azfar.

Huma Calafato endorses Amina Azfar’s opinion and adds, “Books for children need to be imaginative, with simple vocabulary, conceptually easy and not too long.” Amina Azfar says, “It is in a country like ours that the textbook has to make up for ignorant teachers and lack of other reading material. She laments the fact that the “textbooks used by the majority of our children have not been chosen for their quality. The criterion for their selection is being preserved as sacrosanct even though they have obviously improved neither the language competence nor the moral fibre of the generations of Pakistanis who have been brought up on them.”

She adds, “Why this criterion never changes is an interesting question. But an even more interesting question is why the godfathers of these values prefer to send their own children to private schools which may even be prescribing western textbooks whose ‘values’ are utterly different from those that they patronize.”

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